As CEO of Women In Distress (WID), I am asked why domestic violence keeps rising.
The answer is complicated. But what is not complicated is how a community responds when a survivor comes forward — and what that teaches every other survivor watching.
Linda Parker of Davie is CEO of Women in Distress in Broward (Courtesy)
One of the strongest predictors of whether a victim will report abuse is how police, family and the community respond the first time. Survivors worry whether they will be believed. That worry gets worse the moment someone in power abuses someone without power, because the instinct is to protect the powerful.
That was on full display at a recent Lauderhill meeting where the city commissioners prayed for a colleague alleged to have committed domestic violence. It sent survivors a clear message: You matter less than a well-known community member accused of hurting you.
Lauderhill has one of the highest per-capita domestic violence rates in Broward. With support from city police, Women in Distress secured funding for a pilot program dispatching advocates to the city on domestic violence calls for support, documentation and to work with state attorneys to prosecute these cases.
The need is real and urgent, yet when the moment came for its own commission to model accountability, Lauderhill chose to center the accused’s voice and to silence the victim’s.
WID has done this work for 51 years, the first domestic violence organization in Florida and one of the oldest in the country. I ask Lauderhill: What will you do to hold people accountable — including your own city commissioner?
— Linda Parker, Davie
Angie Nixon’s town hall
“Will Angie Nixon’s view on Israel ‘genocide’ question hurt her with Jewish voters?” (News article, Sept. 29). Your headline belies your report of a town hall event at which U.S. Senate candidate Nixon addressed what you called an “overwhelmingly supportive” audience.
While one Jewish attendee questioned whether Nixon should label indiscriminate killing of civilians in Gaza as “genocide,” to which she responded with great care and sensitivity, the vast majority of attendees, including those in the Jewish community, expressed the view that their vote would reflect the radically different policy choices offered by the candidates in this Senate race.
On the one hand is Angie Nixon, a passionate defender of voting rights, gender justice, access to abortion, equitable public education, immigrant and racial justice, and the rigorous protection of vulnerable residents. On the other is Sen. Ashley Moody, an unapologetic supporter of the anti-democratic cruelties of the DeSantis and Trump administrations.
The values articulated by Nixon are those that have been historically important to the Jewish community and will, I’m certain, inform their votes.
— Alan Levine, Miami Beach
The writer is a civil rights attorney.
A message for the midterms
I’m sending an email to all my friends who support Donald Trump. I encourage all readers to do it. Let’s have civil public discourse.
These midterms are more important than usual for our country. I ask for your permission for me to send you daily emails of news reports about what our president has done. If you agree with most of what I’m sending you, vote Republican.
But I ask you for this election to think of possibly voting like an independent. What I mean is, vote for who you think will best serve the interests of our country, not along party lines.
Our forefathers knew the balance of power is key to avoiding abuses. All power in one party does not necessarily mean good things.
Ask yourself: Do you want Trump‘s power to continue unchecked?
— Gary Roberts, Fort Lauderdale
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